"In life, understanding is the booby prize."

“Children share with geniuses an open, inquiring, uninhibited quality of mind.”

“A conflict begins and ends in the hearts and minds of people, not in the hilltops.”

“I think jazz is actually quite unforgiving in its disdain for nostalgia. It demands creativity and change at its highest level,”

“I like it when cities are melancholic. When it started snowing for example, I felt very lonely. I felt very comfortable and very relaxed. When that happens, I write. So I've been writing, not a lot, but I'm inspired everyday.”

“That is basically me, and although I have done many things in my life - conducting, playing piano, and so on - what is fundamental is my being a composer.”

“From the outset of the war, the Canadian people have clearly shown that it is their desire to help in every way to make Canadas war effort as effective as possible.”

“People are disappointed if you're not entertaining and to be entertaining often means to be drunk.”

“But in this country we have one great privilege which they don't have in other countries. When a thing gets to be absolutely unbearable the people can rise up and throw it off. That's the finest asset we've got - the ballot box.”